World News - U.S. legislator warns of Bush plot to merge Canada, the U.S. and Mexico

A US legislator who backs tough anti-immigrant measures & more security at the Canada-US border is warning Americans that President Bush is plotting to integrate the continent. And he says Prime Minister Stephen Harper "buys into it." Colorado Republican Tom Tancredo, revered by some US conservatives for his efforts to staunch the flow of illegal immigrants from Mexico, said this week that Bush is a dangerous internationalist. "He is going to do what he can to create a place where the idea of America is just that, it's an idea. It's not an actual place defined by borders. I mean this is where the guy is really going," he told WorldNetDaily. "I know this is dramatic, or maybe somebody would say overly dramatic. But I'm telling you that everything I see leads me to believe that this whole idea of the North American union, it's not something that's just written about by right-wing fringe kooks," said Tancredo, who is considering a run at the presidency... http://www.news1130.com

US President George W. Bush is heading to Amman, Jordan on Wednesday for talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Is the US about to change its Iraq strategy? SPIEGEL ONLINE spoke with Yasar Qatarneh, director of the Regional Center on Conflict Prevention in Amman, about how the Iraq problem could be solved. SPIEGEL ONLINE: US President George W. Bush is meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Amman, Jordan on Wednesday and Thursday for urgent talks on the security situation in Iraq. But things have been going poorly in Iraq for some time. Why now? Yasar Qatarneh: Some have suggested that this meeting is taking place now because Bush was already on this side of the Atlantic for the NATO summit in Riga. Others have said that it is merely part of the administration's review of its Iraq policy and will give Bush a chance to get the Iraqi government's views. I don't think either of these are the real reason. The meeting has been prompted by Iran's invitation to ...http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,451260,00.html

Lawmakers and Cabinet ministers loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said Wednesday they have carried out their threat to suspend participation in Parliament and the government to protest Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's summit with President Bush. The 30 lawmakers and five Cabinet ministers said their action was necessary because the meeting in Jordan constituted a "provocation to the feelings of the Iraqi people and a violation of their constitutional rights." Their statement did not explain that claim. Al-Maliki and Bush are meeting in Amman, the Jordanian capital, Wednesday and Thursday in a summit aimed at halting Iraq's escalating sectarian violence and paving the way for a reduction of American troops. "We are sticking to our position. ... The boycott is still valid," Falih Hassan, a Sadrist legislator, said in an interview with The Associated Press. "Bush is a criminal who killed a lot of Iraqis and we do not want him to interfere in Iraq's affairs. ...http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15941394/

Bush said Tuesday that he wants more countries in a program that allows foreigners to stay in the USA without visas, despite criticism that the move could open the door to terrorists. "We want people to come to our country," Bush said in Tallinn, Estonia, one of several European countries that have asked to be included in the visa-waiver program, in which 27 foreign countries now participate. "It's in our nation's interest that people be able to come and visit." Bush said his administration aims to add more countries to the program, created to facilitate tourism and business travel 15 years before the 9/11 attacks increased fears of terrorism. He pledged to ensure that "those that want to continue to kill Americans aren't able to exploit the system." Under the program, citizens from visa-waiver countries can travel to the USA for up to 90 days without a visa. To be eligible, countries must prove that only a small percentage of their citizens violate the terms of their visas and only ...http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-11-28-bush-visa_x.htm

Ukraine's parliament has voted to recognize the 1932/1933 forced famine as genocide, in a move that could pave the way for compensation claims by the familes of victims of the man-made disaster that claimed up to 10 million lives. Ukraine's parliament has voted to recognize the famine in which millions died in 1932-33 as an act of genocide by the Soviet government under Josef Stalin, paving the way for possible compensation claims against Russia. A total of 233 members in the 450-seat assembly approved a bill sought by President Viktor Yushchenko to press for world recognition of the famine, caused by Stalin's drive to collectivize farming and seen as a deliberate policy to crush the Ukrainian nation and smash resistance to Soviet policy by Ukraine's farmers or 'kulaks'. Some estimates put the death toll as high as 10 million, or almost one-third of the population at the time. The famine is known in Ukraine as "Holodomor" or "Death by Hunger."...http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,451350,00.html

The Bush administration wants North Korea's attention, so like a scolding parent it's trying to make it tougher for that country's eccentric leader to buy iPods, plasma televisions and Segway electric scooters. The U.S. government's first-ever effort to use trade sanctions to personally aggravate a foreign president expressly targets items believed to be favored by Kim Jong Il or presented by him as gifts to the roughly 600 loyalist families who run the communist government. Kim, who engineered a secret nuclear weapons program, has other options for obtaining the high-end consumer electronics and other items he wants. But the list of proposed luxury sanctions, obtained by The Associated Press, aims to make Kim's swanky life harder: No more cognac, Rolex watches, cigarettes, artwork, expensive cars, Harley Davidson motorcycles or even personal watercraft, such as Jet Skis....http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/29/world/main2213968.shtml?source=RSSattr=World_2213968